2 Giant Pandas Arrive to Warm Welcome in Berlin

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Meng Meng, one of two giant pandas who arrived in Berlin on Saturday, peered out of her container at Schönefeld airport. Along with Jiao Qing, she will be on loan to Berlin for the next 15 yeas.CreditCreditRalf Hirschberger/DPA, via Associated Press

By The Associated Press

June 24, 2017

BERLIN — Meng Meng and Jiao Qing — two giant pandas — arrived on Saturday to fanfare in Berlin, where they will spend the next 15 years living in a lavish $10 million, Chinese-style compound at the Berlin Zoo.

The German capital has been excited over the arrival of the pandas, and they were received at the airport by the city’s mayor and the Chinese ambassador to Germany after safely weathering the long flight from China.

Mitigating the discomfort of the 12-hour flight, the pandas traveled the animal equivalent of first-class, receiving stately treatment on their voyage from Chengdu in southwestern China.

"They slept a bit, munched on their bamboo and nibbled on some cookies,” Andreas Ochs, a Berlin veterinarian who accompanied the couple, told reporters at Berlin’s Schönefeld airport shortly after arrival. The bears’ entourage also included two Chinese zookeepers and a gaggle of journalists.

The pandas will be presented to the public at the Berlin Zoo on July 6; Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Xi Jinping of China are also expected to visit the furry vedettes ahead of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Germany, which begins on July 7.

On Saturday, though, it was Berlin’s mayor who extended the city’s hospitality. “It was my personal wish to come and welcome our new residents,” Mayor Michael Müller said. “We are delighted that Berlin has gained another fantastic attraction with these bears.”

The couple will move into the new compound, which has been furnished with Chinese-style pavilions, red lanterns, a climbing area and a mountain landscape. They will be the only pandas in the country, the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

Expectations are also high that the two will have babies soon, even though Dr. Ochs warned that Meng Meng is not yet sexually mature.

The arrival of the bears was preceded by years of bilateral negotiations. Giant pandas are unique to China and can be sent abroad as diplomatic tokens.

“In China, pandas are regarded as a national treasure,” the Chinese ambassador, Shi Mingde, said. “Therefore the breeding and conservation of these animals is a top priority for us."

The pandas will be on loan from China for 15 years — a deal for which it is charging $1.1 million each year, the German agency reported.

The pandas were taken from the airport to the zoo under police protection, so they did not have to stop at any red lights. They also had their own food on the plane — one metric ton of bamboo from China. Once they’ve chewed through all of it, the zoo will import special bamboo from the Netherlands.

Berlin’s last panda, Bao Bao, was sent in 1980 as a gift from Hua Guofeng, the Chinese leader at the time, to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany. Bao Bao died in 2012.

Berlin’s most famous zoo animal, Knut the polar bear, died of a sudden illness in 2011.